“Oh! dear!” sighed Blanche, “I do wish you’d try to understand, mother. There aren’t any trains. There aren’t any posts or telegraphs. Wherever we go we’ve just got to walk. Haven’t we, Millie?”
Millie began to snivel. “It’s ’orrible,” she said.
“Well I can’t understand it,” repeated Mrs Gosling.
By degrees, however, the controversy took a new shape. Granting for the moment the main contention that London was uninhabitated, Mrs Gosling urged that it would be a dangerous, even a foolhardy, thing to venture into the country. If there was no Government there would be no law and order, was the substance of her argument; government in her mind being represented by its concrete presentation in the form of the utterly reliable policeman. Furthermore, she pointed out, that they did not know anyone in the country, with the exception of a too-distant uncle in Liverpool, and that there would be nowhere for them to go.
“We shall have to work,” said Blanche, who was surely inspired by her glimpse of the silent city.
“Well, we’ve got nearly a ’undred pounds left of what your poor father drew out o’ the bank before we shut ourselves up,” said her mother.
“I suppose we could buy things in the country,” speculated Blanche.
“You seem set on the country for some reason,” said Mrs Gosling with a touch of temper.
“Well, we’ve got to get food,” returned Blanche, raising her voice. “We can’t live on air.”
“And if food’s to be got cheaper in the country than in London,” snapped Mrs Gosling, “my experience goes for nothing, but, of course, you know best, if I am your mother.”